Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Storm’s Damage Extends to Nation’s History

The Argosy Book Store in Manhattan and its contents were damaged by water when bricks blown by Hurricane Sandy crashed through the roof.Credit Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

In a freezer in a building on East 59th Street, steps from Lexington Avenue, far from where Hurricane Sandy inflicted the most pain, are some papers. The temptation is to say that they are old and they are cold, and they are — that is true.

It is also true that they are in the freezer because of the hurricane, because freezing is what the experts say to do when you are trying to save waterlogged documents. Historic waterlogged documents.

“Acts of Congress — they’re laws,” said Naomi Hample, lifting them from the freezer. “Jefferson signed them when he was secretary of state.”

When the storm was lashing the city, the papers lay in a closet in the Argosy Book Store, which Ms. Hample owns with her two sisters. It is six stories of polite defiance against the conventional wisdom about independent bookstores in the 21st century. It is jammed with books, old letters and maps.

But now it has fewer of them because of what happened as the wind drove the anemometers to dizzying speeds.

What happened was that bricks tore loose on the 32nd floor of the office building next door at 110 East 59th Street, where the tenants include Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading firm that occupied four floors of One World Trade Center when a plane hit on Sept. 11, 2001. Some of the bricks tumbled onto the street. Some punched through the roof of the Argosy’s little building, which Ms. Hample said was built in 1900.

The water poured in after that, soaking the old laws in the closet. Ms. Hample moved them to the freezer to preserve them before a specialist tries to restore them. On top of the stack was “An Act Respecting the Government of the Territories of the United States Northwest and South of the River Ohio.” It was dated May 8, 1792.

Next was “An Act to Continue in Force for a Limited Time an Act Intituled ‘An Act for the Temporary Establishment of the Post Office.’” The date on that one was Aug. 4, 1790, and for all their victories in the Revolutionary War, the leaders of the new nation clung to terms like “intituled” that the British used on Acts of Parliament.

And then there was “An Act Relative to the Compensations to Certain Officers Employed in the Collection of the Duties of Impost and Tonnage.”

Some of the documents at the Argosy that were damaged are acts of Congress signed by Thomas Jefferson.Credit Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

But before you say that a law is not worth the paper it is printed on, consider this: Before the storm, each of those pieces of paper was worth at least $15,000. How much they are worth now depends on the restorer’s magic.

The water was not the Argosy’s only problem. The block was closed once the bricks came down, Ms. Hample said. “They couldn’t let the street open until they were sure no more bricks would fall,” she said. “We didn’t get in until Thursday, and during those three days, dampness set in, and we started to get mold.”

Steve Solomon, a spokesman for Jack Resnick & Sons, the owner of the office building, said the company had not figured out why the bricks came loose but was working on repairing the damaged facade. Ms. Hample said the company had sent a crew to start making repairs at the Argosy as well. “They’re very obliging,” she said. “The head maintenance guy came in and said, ‘Are you still speaking to me?’ I said, ‘Of course. You’ve been very cooperative.’”

She led the way to the fifth floor. “This is the first editions room,” she said. “The water poured down from the ceiling.”

This was on Monday, after the cleanup. She said “barrels and barrels of signed books” had been discarded. There was a smell. “They were getting moldy, and the insurance man said, ‘Throw them out.’”

Others are still drying out. A copy of “Raise High the Roof Beams, Carpenter” by J.D. Salinger looked bloated. “The Great Quillow,” by James Thurber, was stained. Two volumes of Swinburne were stuck together.

“You can’t tell if it’s damaged until you take it off the shelf,” said a sister, Judith Lowry. But the water ran down the backs of the shelves. “Some don’t look so bad until you open them,” she said.

The sisters know all this is a footnote to the storm, but sometimes footnotes are worth paying attention to. “The storm had tremendous effect on so many people that you wouldn’t expect to be affected,” said the third sister, Adina Cohen. “This isn’t Staten Island, we know, but it’s having an effect on these pieces of history. It is really sad when something historical disappears forever.”

A version of this article appears in print on 11/16/2012, on page A31 of the NewYork edition with the headline: Pieces of History Suffer In Wind and Rain’s Wake.

What's Next

Looking for New York Today?

New York Today is still going strong! Though no longer on City Room, New York Today continues to appear every weekday morning, offering a roundup of news and events for the city. You can find the latest New York Today at nytoday.com or in the morning, on The New York Times homepage or its New York section. You can also receive it via email.

Lookin for Metropolitan Diary?

Metropolitan Diary continues to publish! Since 1976, Metropolitan Diary has been a place for New Yorkers, past and present, to share odd fleeting moments in the city. We will continue to publish one item each weekday morning and a round-up in Monday's print edition. You can find the latest entries at nytimes.com/diary and on our New York section online.

About

City Room®, a news blog of live reporting, features and reader conversations about New York City, has been archived. Send questions or suggestions by e-mail.